A presenter of ‘El Tirachinas,' a program on Cadena Cope, called Reyes at home and pretended to be Emilio Butragueño, the Sports Director at Real Madrid and a football idol for most Spaniards.
The set-up saw a presenter of the show ‘con' Reyes, his agent and his mother into believing that they were speaking to Butragueño. Pretending to be Butragueño, the presenter insinuated that a deal was very close and that Reyes should state his support of Real Madrid when they all met with the President of Real Madrid. No surprise here. The bomb came after Reyes followed Butragueño's lead by reciting back what he was told to say, that he “always wanted to play for the club” with, “look, I am playing with bad people here.”
Before speaking with Reyes, his agent said on-air that he had a conversation with Real Madrid's chief scout (we don't know what about – but very suspect none the less) who told him that if anything needed to be said then the club would call him. Reyes agent believed that this was the call, which is why he gave them Reyes home phone number. Reyes agent also asked, on air, if a deal had been agreed with Arsenal. The fake Butragueño said “yes.” The rest, as we read in the papers, was history.
At the end of the conversation his mother commented ‘on air' that he was worried for Reyes as he never went out, to clubs and so on. The fake Butragueño said, “that everybody goes out in Madrid and you like Madrid, right?”
Reyes might be finding it hard at the moment because his family haven't settled here, but give him a break. He is an amazing talent and clubs would do anything to secure his services. Anything. And we know what they did to secure Anelka and what they tried to get Vieira.